McCartney Times

Join Julien’s in New York City at the Hard Rock Cafe
on May 19, 2018 for an unprecedented MUSIC ICONS 2018 event.

One of the highly anticipated items of the auction is George Harrison’s first electric guitar, a Hofner Club 40 not seen since 1966. Harrison played the small blonde with black body binding single–cutaway hollow body instrument in the early days of The Beatles when they performed around Liverpool, England as The Quarrymen. The group had been transitioning from a skiffle band using acoustic instruments to a rock and roll band playing on electric instruments. John Lennon and George Harrison were the first to acquire electric guitars, which were almost identical Hofner Club 40 models. Harrison traded his big Hofner President model acoustic archtop jazz guitar for the Hofner Club 40, with Ray Ennis a member of The Swinging Blue Jeans to acquire his Club 40. Harrison played the guitar with Paul McCartney, John Lennon and Pete Best and Ken Brown, who were band members at the time, at The Casbah Coffee Club, a teenager’s social club in Hayman’s Green, West Derby.